Type News: In Particlear

One hundred: the atomic number of fermium, the year Trajan became consul — and the number of this edition of the Type News! So we should celebrate. The past week witnessed celebrations of Canada Day and Independence Day. Explosions! Freedom! Here’s something to go along for the ride:

When it was first released several years ago, Delve Withrington’s Tilden Sans was but a single face — light, stylish, and adaptable. Six new weights have been added to the family, increasing the range with a text-ready regular through to a beefy extra bold. The slightly condensed geometric construction features subtly rounded forms, incised lowercase terminals, and substantial x-height.

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. There’s a lot to like about the way Dave Rowland describes Quayside — his latest baseball style display script. “Deliciously thick and bulbous” certainly hits all the right visual flavour points, but that just scratches the surface. The lineup of OpenType features is impressive, including plenty of alternates, expected and surprisingly clever ligatures, energetic swashes, and oldstyle figures.

His name may not be familiar, but Georg Salden has been designing type for over fifty years. His latest face is Daphne — a squat, squarish number inspired by his own broad-nib penmanship. Using the standard glyph set as a base, a nearly endless array of stylistic options can be applied — “clip-on” ascenders and descenders included — through the use of numerous alternates and calligraphic swash variations.

We might be light on new type, but we’re heavy on the linkbait, so here we go with “n links or topics to fill your time”:

At this point in the routine, I’d usually sign off, thank Grant Hutchinson for showing off some great new typefaces (thanks, Grant!), and call it a day. But this time I’d like to reminisce for a bit.

When we started the Type News, in an attempt to be witty about the whole enterprise, I opened with this excerpt from a Caslon specimen:

At the time, I had no idea where this column was headed or how it would take shape. I like where we’re at, but even more, I’m looking forward to seeing where this thing takes us in the next 100 (or more!) editions. We have some big plans for Typedia in the weeks and months ahead, and if our managing editor can get his shit together and ass in gear [Ed. — Hey, now.] I think you’ll like what we have in store. Meanwhile — see you next week!

Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for setting off all the fireworks at once. BOOM.